Alabama Department of Archives and History

ALABAMA'S SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICES

Robert C. Brickell

Robert Coman Brickell was born
April 4, 1824, at Tuscambia, Colbert County,
and died November 20, 1900, in Huntsville;
son of Richard Benjamin and Margaret Williamson (Coman) Brickell; grandson of Robert
and Sarah Jane (Prout) Coman, who emigrated
from North Carolina and settled in
Madison County.

Brickell attended school
in Athens and at Nashville, Tenn. He read law under Judge Daniel
Coleman at Athens for two years, and when
he was nineteen years old, was admitted to the
bar in the circuit court of Limestone County.
He began to practice law, 1843, in Athens. In
1851 he moved to Huntsville; practiced with
Septimus D. Cabaniss, and later in the firm
of Walker, Cabaniss & Brickell, Gen. LeRoy
Walker, later a member of the cabinet of
President Davis and first secretary of war, C.
S. A., being senior partner. In 1857, Mr.
Cabaniss retired, and the firm became Walker
& Brickell, continuing until 1873- when Judge
Brickell was appointed an associate justice of
the supreme court of Alabama. At this time
the court was composed of Republican judges
and the appointment was made by Gov. David
P. Lewis, a Republican, although Judge
Brickell was a strict Democrat. In 1874, he
was elected justice, and the following year was
chosen chief justice by the court. In 1880 he
was elected chief justice by the Democratic
party, and continued to hold that office until
October 25, 1884, when he resigned and returned
to Huntsville to resume his practice.

In 1889, he was appointed general council
for the Decatur Land Company, and practiced
law in North Decatur with C. C. Harris and
John C. Eyster. He moved to Montgomery in
1891, and formed a partnership with Maj. H.
C. Semple and Mr. Gunter, under the firm
name of Brickell, Semple & Gunter. He was
appointed chief justice of the supreme court
March, 1894, by Gov. Thomas G. Jones, and
served until 1898, when he declined reelection
he returned to Huntsville, and in 1899, formed
the law firm of Brickell & Brickell, with his
son, Robert C. Brickell, who was admitted
to the bar that year. This firm was terminated
in 1900 by the death of Judge Brickell.
He was author of Brickell's "Digest of the
Decisions of the Alabama Supreme Court,"
first volume published in 1872, second in 1874
and third in 1888. The digest is dedicated to
Judge Daniel Coleman, under whom Judge
Brickell first read law. His decisions are embraced
in forty-six volumes of Alabama Reports,
beginning with Forty-ninth Alabama and
ending with Seventy-ninth Alabama, commencing
again with One Hundred Second Alabama,
and continuing through One Hundred
Twenty-second Alabama, and are quoted with
approval by the highest courts throughout
the Union.
He was a States-rights Democrat,
a Mason, and was elected a member of the
American Social Science Association shortly
before his death, which made him a member
of the National Institute of Arts, Sciences and
Letters.

Married: November 29, 1876, at Montgomery,
Mary Blassingame, daughter of Robert
James and Mary Caroline (Blassingame) Glenn,
of Coosada, Autauga County, and of Marion;
granddaughter of Mary Lewis of Virginia, a
lineal descendant of Robert Lewis of "Belvoir,"
of Augustin Warner, and of Gov. George Reade,
of Virginia. Mrs. Brickell, whose mother was
a younger sister of Aurelia Blassingame, second
wife of Gov. Fitzpatrick of Alabama, was
reared by Mrs. Fitzpatrick after the death of
her parents.